How do i setup a dual boot, xp/redhat7.3? 4

[farley99]

How do i setup a dual boot, xp/redhat7.3?

 

[pansophic]

If you install XP first, then install your linux boot loader in the MBR, it will automatically recognize the XP partition and give you a boot option for it as well. It usually names it DOS unless you specify otherwise.

Unlike Windows, Linux will boot into a logical partition. Window has to be in a Primary partition in order to boot.

You can always use the Win95 + Linux HOWTO to get a better idea. Take a look at

http://www.linuxdoc.org

pansophic

 

[amitatharkar]

do you already have linux installed on the system? if you are installing windows later you will have to modify your boot loader. which loader you are using.. Grub / Lilo?

if it is grub its configuration file is at /boot/grub/grub.conf
edit that file and add the partion on which your XP is installed.
and run
grub-install /dev/hda
<assuming /dev/hda is your HDD. You replace it with the proper HDD>


if you are using lilo. its configuration file is /etc/lilo.conf
add the partion there
and run
lilo
this will make your system dual boot.

 

[JeffPr]

I was having the same problem with you except from the other way, trying to modify windows so it would recognize linux and windows XP when I booted windows. This website is pretty good for doing that:

http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html

Do you think your friend could feed my cat? Heisenberg wasn't sure. ~ Erwin Schrodinger talking of his revolutionary paradox

 

[JeffPr]

for amitatharkar,

Can you clarify what you mean when the following commands

edit that file and add the partion on which your XP is installed.
and run
grub-install /dev/hda

I don't see what installing grub on the partition where windows XP will do for you when booting linux. I have a screen that comes up that asks me to boot linux and I would like to have windows XP there as well, will this do that for me as long as I tell linux the partition where windows XP is.

Do you think your friend could feed my cat? Heisenberg wasn't sure. ~ Erwin Schrodinger talking of his revolutionary paradox

 

[rvijay17]

> I don't see what installing grub on the partition where > windows XP will do for you when booting linux.

Which loader do you have, grub or LILO.

other=/dev/hda1
optional
label=WinXP

Add the above lines at the end of a file named /etc/lilo.conf if you use LILO. Then do lilo -q and lilo at the prompt.

regards,
vijay.

 

[JeffPr]

I am using the grub bootloader and I tried something similar by adding the following line to my /etc/grub.conf file:

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

and of course I have no idea what that does but read that this is what I should do to my file to enable dual boot. When redhat linux boots it gives me the option of chosing redhat or DOS (which is supposidly the other operating system windows XP), and when I choose DOS the following letters come up

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

and then my computer just stops. So if I ever want to print those two lines to the screen and have my computer do nothing afterwards, I'm set. You going to have to clarify the following statement because it is missing a few words for me:

Then do lilo -q and lilo at the prompt.

I have windows XP on another hard drive and this is what I want to tell the computer to boot from but don't know how. Also can you poste a copy of what your grub (or lilo) .conf file looks like so I can get a better idea.
thanks for the help.

Do you think your friend could feed my cat? Heisenberg wasn't sure. ~ Erwin Schrodinger talking of his revolutionary paradox

 

[rvijay17]

prompt
timeout=50
default=WinXP
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
message=/boot/message
lba32

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-14
label=linux
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.18-14.img
read-only
append=&quot;root=LABEL=/&quot;

other=/dev/hda1
optional
label=WinXP

This is my copy of lilo.conf. I have never used grub, so I dont know the configuration file for grub.

may be your c:\ is hda1 rather than hda0.

regards,
vijay.

 

[farley99]

When I install xp how do i get it not to use up the whole drive?

 

[amitatharkar]

For JeffPr

All this should be done by booting the macine in Linux

edit that file and add the partion on which your XP is installed.
and run
grub-install /dev/hda


This is just for adding the XP in your grub loader. I said add the partition on which xp is install... this should be done in /boot/grub/grub.conf.

The configuration

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1


These lines add the xp partition which is installed on your first hdd (i.e. hd0) and in first partition (i.e. ,0)

checkout the partion no. on which XP is installed.

 

[JeffPr]

Thanks for the clarification, I will do that.

regards

Do you think your friend could feed my cat? Heisenberg wasn't sure. ~ Erwin Schrodinger talking of his revolutionary paradox

 

[JeffPr]

For amita,

I did what you said and edited my grub.conf file and changed the line to the right partition where windows XP was. I went and tried to load windows XP from the redhat linux screen and it said booting windows XP and then I got an error that said invalid disk system, which obviously means that it can't find windows XP. I ran the command grub-install /dev/hda1 which is the hard drive that windows XP is on as well (the same on that linux is on, linux is on the 0 partition and windows XP is on the 1 partition). Here is my grub.conf file

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda1
# initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-6)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-6 ro root=LABEL=LINUX hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-6.img
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

so what do you think I am doing wrong?

Do you think your friend could feed my cat? Heisenberg wasn't sure. ~ Erwin Schrodinger talking of his revolutionary paradox

 

[JeffPr]

Oh and one more thing, when I ran the grub-install /dev/hda1 I screwed something up with the bootloader because when I go to boot linux a screen comes up and says &quot;loading grub stage 2&quot;
and then nothing happens afterwards. I don't have a boot partition and I originally installed grub on the master boot record so I want to know if that command I typed installed grub somewhere where the computer can't find it. What is the command to install it back to the MBR if that is what I have to do? The only way I can boot linux now is using a boot disk which brings me into redhat no problems.

regards

Do you think your friend could feed my cat? Heisenberg wasn't sure. ~ Erwin Schrodinger talking of his revolutionary paradox

 

[enorbet]

Jeff
Since you mentioned on another thread you'd like my input I figured I'd jump in with something even though it won't be in-depth just now as I'm heavily involved in trying to understand how the linux kernel actually &quot;sees&quot; and labels ide drives and then understand exactly what the kernel option to &quot;boot offboard IDE first&quot; does to accomplish this. While it might be nice to just solve a &quot;simple&quot; cdrom problem I really would rather understand the functional details since I've noticed that different distros employ different labelling systems as well ( some use /dev/hdfoo while others use &quot;interface/lun&quot; much like a scsi bus ) and fundamentals work everywhere, all the time.

I have used a grub boot floppy for exactly the above reason, that is I installed a Debian distro with my drives on the onboard controller ( it wouldn't install otherwise ) and then rebuilt the kernel to activate the &quot;boot offboard first&quot; and after still having difficulties used the grub boot floppy to get in and work it out. It was easy to simply change lines in Lilo then so thats what I did rather than convert totally to &quot;grub&quot; even though ultimately it is the way to go. Grub just stomps all over Lilo.

One cool thing about the boot floppy is that the first command which specifies where root will be returns either an error or partition information letting you know what grub sees ie whether you have entered the right parameters. So it may be especially instructive and a lot less repetitive if you download/create the grub boot floppy to test out your parameters. The second command set allows a long list of switches/parameters for initrd, system.map, vga settings, etc which is very convenient for testing purposes. Anyway until I can check back and see how you're doing or if this helped at all good luck and keep up the fight. Once you solve it you'll own some precious knowledge instead of depending on &quot;paint by numbers&quot;.

Sincerely
Jimmy

 

[farley99]

How do i get win xp onto this partion...
other=/dev/hda1
optional
label=WinXP
?

 

[enorbet]

Hey Farley
Still fussin 'n figtin, eh? OK my problem is solved ( seems there is a changing list of kernel options that can be appended or must be appended regarding ide devices when you have more than four.... another thread, but I'm cool now ) so I can help you if someone else hasn't already. I'm sure though that before anyone can help to any deep degree they're going to need to know a little more info on your system and problem.

For example where did you get that designation &quot;other=/dev/hda1&quot;? Did you read it somewhere or did Lilo find WinXP at that location and have trouble booting it for some reason? Is WinXP installed yet? If so, it defaults to the first drive, first active primary partition which is usually /dev/hda1, but not always ( depends on if you have one big partition or many, or if you choose other than default ). It's hard to know what to tell you when it's hard to tell how far along you are in getting your 2 systems installed.

If it were mine I'd install XP first ( if at all <G> ) and then after it was in and working, install Linux using either Lilo or Grub to boot both. Since I have PQMagic, a superior partitioning tool, I happen to use it's BootMagic bootmanager which reminds me a lot of &quot;XosL&quot; a free or shareware ( I forget ) excellent bootloader ( you can google for it if you like ) but in my case I choose for the main bootloader to point to either Lilo or Grub so I can boot any of 5 OSs from any of each OSs own bootloader. This may sound complicated, but the advantage is in a kind of cross-coupling. I can maintain and/or recover from any OS. But, assuming you intend to keep it basic, just install XP as it wants, saving at least 4Gigs of space for Linux ( ideally, 100-200MB linux swap partition and remaining as ext2 root partition ) and install Lilo or Grub to your MBR. If that fails, install Lilo to your root partition and call it from another bootloader. If you know how to edit &quot;ntldr&quot; you can do it right in XP. Otherwise you may have to use an additional bootmanager such as XosL, BootMagic, PQBoot, etc etc.

Sorry if this is off track, but it was hard to know exactly what your question meant with so little info.

Jimmy